Walmart stores in several states evacuated by automated bomb threats

According to WCVB.com out of Boston, Walmart locations in Biddeford, Scarborough, Wyndham, Palmyra and Houlton all received similar, robo-call type threats.

Whether a threat is credible or not, police departments that receive these types of calls have to treat them as if they’re real.

Police say they took threat seriously but found no bombs, allowing Wal-Mart to reopen stores.

According to the Houlton police department, a robotic sounding male voice had phoned in the bomb threat around 7:30 PM.

Walmarts around the state were evacuated for a time Saturday evening after multiple bomb threats were received, according to Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna.

Several Walmart stores were evacuated in York and Cumberland counties.

An employee at the Wal-Mart in Thomaston said the store was still evacuated as of 9:25 p.m., WCSH reported.

Following the initial search, a few stores made a decision to remain closed while night shift staff continued a more thorough search for anything unusual.

“Given that eight other stores were called and the nature of the call, we are pretty confident it was a crank call”, he said.

“It lets us know that other people are dealing with it and that maybe the threat isn’t as risky as we thought”, Savidge said.

We’re told the store was evacuated – a search was conducted and nothing was found in the store.

Walmart is working closely with police to find those responsible, a Walmart spokesman said. Although officials confirmed that it was a false alarm, investigators are now trying to determine if the calls were made by the same person.